Here They Go Again…Gas Prices Fall = We Don’t Need Offshore Drilling

President Obama is shelving a plan announced in the final days of the Bush administration to open much of the U.S. coast to oil drilling, including 130 million acres off California’s coast from Mendocino to San Diego.

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ordered the plan be put on hold while his agency conducts a 180-day review of the country’s offshore oil and gas resources. Salazar’s critical comments about the plan signaled that the new administration will seek to rewrite it if not completely scrap it.

The Bush proposal “opened the possibility of oil and gas leases along the entire Eastern seaboard, portions of offshore California and the far eastern Gulf of Mexico with almost no consultation from states, industry or community input,” Salazar said at a news conference in Washington. “In my view it was a headlong rush of the worst kind.”

On October 1, 2008, the Congressional Moratorium on offshore drilling expired, but you were on record opposing lifting the moratorium even if gasoline were to reach $10 a gallon, calling it a “phantom solution.” While you never said you actually wanted the price of gas to reach such levels, will you be in favor of Congress reinstating the ban?

We even provided you with the following answer:

These restrictions effectively banned new offshore energy production off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, parts of offshore Alaska, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Recent DOI estimates put the amount of energy in these previously off-limits areas at 19.1 billion barrels of oil and 83.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas–approximately 30 years worth of imports from Saudi Arabia and enough natural gas to power America’s homes for 17 years. It should also be noted that these initial estimates tend to be low.

Offshore drilling restrictions are a relic of the past. They were put in place at a time when energy was cheap, the need for additional domestic supplies was not seen as dire, and the political path of least resistance was to give in to environmentalists. Although oil prices have fallen from their record summer levels, they will likely return to those levels after the recession–now is not the time for complacency. Domestic energy supply is still badly needed, and the risk of producing it has been reduced.

All new drilling would be subject to strict safeguards and would require state-of-the-art technology with a proven track record for limiting the risk of spills. Rules should be put in place to allow for safe exploration and to ensure leases are not slowed by years of red tape and litigation.

Congress made the American people wait nearly 30 years to address our immediate energy challenges. Secretary Salazar today told the American people they must continue to wait – even though more than two-thirds of them want to tap our vast domestic resources for the benefit of all Americans.

Secretary Salazar’s announcement means that development of our offshore resources could be stalled indefinitely. That would delay Americans’ access to nearly 160,000 new, well-paying jobs, $1.7 trillion in revenues to federal, state and local governments and greater energy security.”

Hey Kenny baby wake up and smell the coffee.. it is about INDEPENDENCE you fool. You and the rest of this useless presidents cabinet need to get out of the way of hard working Americans. This country was not built upon the utter stupidity of people like yourself. If our forefathers thought like you people, we would be saluting the British Flag or maybe the Nazi flag.

It is clear that the Obama Administration is not interested in creating jobs at the expense of their plan to drive fossil fuel prices through the roof. Their mistaken vilification of carbon fuels will lead to the demise of this country if we allow it. Please support Senator Inhofe as he attempts to save us.

Your focus seems to be entirely on finding more oil, particularly within United States. The strongest focus should be on energy CONSERVATION, not consuming more oil. If you leave the oil in the ground, it will provide security, if it is available, it will be consumed by the wasteful squandering that is going on right now, leaving America in a worse, and even possibly helpless position in the not to distant future. America needs to face the fact that the automobile it has known for the last 100 years is obsolete. Remember, it didn't take that long for people to get rid of their horses when something better (automobiles) came along. Money also needs to be spent on rapid transit, and redesigning America's cities so they are not bicycle and pedestrian hostile. Electric / Plug in Hybrid Cars, More energy efficient housing, industry and Even renewable energy sources need to be developed. The oil will always be valuable, if for nothing else but plastics and petrochemicals. Global warming will take care of itself if we reduce energy CONSUMPTION!

The "conservation of energy and reduction of oil use" is just a farce! Conservation is a wonderful thing but don't you think that the first thing one needs is to secure our own supply and stop depending on foreign imports? That alone will reduce the cost of the product.

Mass transit would work if it weren't run by Local, State or Federal plans. In order for mass transit to work, it needs to be run by real businesses not funded by the Government – so much for that happening!

Hybrid automobiles may be the future but how long will it take the power companies to realize that they have America by the short hairs once everyone has to plug in their cars?

Finally, Global Warming WILL take care of itself when Mother Earth decides to settle down after her change. When compared to the Earth, Man is a very small, insignificant item that She can delete at Her slightest whim. The small things that we do to help do in fact make a difference but on a much smaller scale that many alarmists want you to believe.

Joe you are delusional like your environmentalist buddies, you people want us to be a third world country while China and other countries use the oil in the ground. The time it will take to change over will be much longer than it took when we changed to automobilies and in the interim we will become a third world country. The only climate change taking place is normal and cyclical in nature. You don't realize but people like you are making the Gore types rich and the government into BIG BROTHER.

Mr. Dyck does not seem to realize that oil in the ground is of no use. It takes several years to develop an oil or gas find. We need to start years ago (bad grammar intended) in developing these reserves. If we wait until we absolutely have to have it, then we will be playing catch-up for decades, just like we are doing now. If we have the energy, then we have the responsibility to find it and use it for America.

They say that it could 10 year to get oil from these areas so that means start now. The land that they want to drill on belongs to the American

People and not environmentalists. Tell Gore and his friends to walk instead of driving and become vegetarians if they think that cows and pigs are giving off to much green house gases.The government should stop the 1.8 million barrels of oil that we export each day then we could import

1.8 million less each day.Why don't we ask how many oil wells are capped in the US that we could open up. The US cannot control all the green house gases for the world,so until they all get together we need OUR oil.

i am from the south where offshore drilling is an everyday occurence. if obama really wants to add new jobs and make our country self suffecient and less dependent on foreign oil, then he should create new jobs by drilling for oil and building a few new refineries. not by having people w/no construction skills work on bridges and roadways. he is dillusional and has no idea what he is doing.looks more and more like we are heading toward a socialist state. god help us.

US offshore drilling will not only make the USA independent of foreign oil requirements, it would create thousands of jobs and the US would have a tangible supply to support the US dollars. Also, refineries will be necessary creating more jobs. Throw in some nuclear plants, more jobs and more independence. Include environment energy supplies, more jobs; more independence. peloski and reid's (non-caps) stupid ideas will put this country under but as long as they get their pockets filled, what do they care? Wake up America!

Frankly, I'm getting real sick of the fear mongering. It took two years of campaigning to make half the people in this country come to the realization that we are truly in need and only the government can save us. President Obama saying our economy is so bad, it may never recover if we don't spend trillions NOW!

Perhaps we TAXPAYERS will soon see the light: This government is not working for us. There is a group of people in there who I believe just lust after the(Godlike)POWER.

They actually believe they know our needs better than we, and know better how to solve them. We're being forced to discontinue using fossil fuel because that's going to destroy the earth in 10 years. (Same thing they said 30 years ago. Today they say that livestock causes more damage than all the fossil fuel used in the entire world.

They led us to believe before the election that they would be open to off-shore drilling and nuclear power, but sometime it's ok to fool us for our own good just to get elected. They know they can't allow those things and they're only looking out for our best interest! Trust us, we know!

They force us to spend billions on the big 3 auto manufacturers, with regulations and restrictions on what they build. They know what kind of cars everyone should drive.(Gee, I'd like one of them Smart Cars, they're great for family trips!)

Now, with businesses failing daily, they want to force them all to be unionized so the ones still in business can fail.

Drill now! Let's get the factories moving on building the rigs for drilling. There's a three year wait for rigs right now. Let's put Americans back to work building the deep sea rigs necessary and then drill here so we can be energy independent while we look for future power solutions. Oh and don't forget nuclear power plants, add that to our repetoire and be completely self-sufficient. Choose three nuke plant designs, no more 10 year design, permit and build cycles. Choose a design, cut permitting time to 180 days and build it. More US jobs in all sectors. that's the kind of stimulus we need not smoke and mirrors.

It is interesting to come back to this page 15 months later, after the big oil rig screw up in Louisiana. Offshore drilling does come at a price. Yes, so does conservation, but you would think that asking someone to conserve is some kind of hate crime or something. It doesn't really take that much effort, or thought to use or consume less. One of my Scottish grandmothers favorite sayings was "Waste Not, Want Not".

In fact, my second wife's children were raised with this kind of arrogant, wasteful, squandering attitude I see here, and it has taken them 10 years to even start having them to come around, so I can imagine how hard it is for adults to change. The stepson never drank a glass empty, or left a plate clean! He would always take more than he needed, and seemed to enjoy throwing whatever was left in the garbage. Please try harder, I'm not trying to make someone (Republican or Democrat) rich, just encourage you save your own money and live a slightly more modest lifestyle. How evil could that be?

[…] oil co’s there…The Foundry, September 25th, 2008 and October 24th, 2008 and still more February 10th, 2009. It kind of make MoPatriot wonder if anyone is actually hearing what these elitists are doing. […]

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